Understanding American Attitudes towards Inequality: A Qualitative Approach

• In Event: Social Class, Attitudes, and Partisanship

Abstract

In 2013, President Barack Obama described economic inequality as the “defining challenge of our
time.” Despite record high levels of inequality both historically and cross-nationally, the American electorate
remains surprisingly conservative. This trend is further perplexing when one considers the fact that
the American public has recognized the gap between the rich and poor has widened over time and would like
to see the gap be narrowed (Kelly and Enns, 2010; McCall, 2013). Recent events, such as the election
of billionaire businessman Donald Trump, have reinvigorated scholarly interest in understanding what motivates
people to support policies and politicians that appear to be antithetical to their economic self-interest.
Although random sample surveys have grown to become standard in the discipline, they do not allow us to
understand why people think the way they do. To gain more purchase on how Americans come to think and
talk about my topics of interests, I build off of recent qualitative studies (Cramer, 2016; Hochschild, 2018)
by gathering the stories of real Americans, from a variety of backgrounds, and listen to how they discuss
economic inequality. Specifically, I seek to answer several principle questions that conventional surveys are
unequipped to fully address: What do people see when they see “inequality”? What do people perceive
rising inequality a consequence of? And if inequality is a problem for society, how should it be addressed?
These questions are the focus of an extensive study involving one-on-one interviews and focus groups in
three states (South Carolina, West Virginia and Vermont) with white and black citizens of various ages and
income levels. This qualitative study’s scope and depth will help create a richer and more nuanced picture
of Americans’ understanding of economic inequality and the ways they would like to see it addressed.

Author

• Emily Wager, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill